POLITICAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 3, 19 August 1911, Page 5

POLITICAL.

NOTES BY THE WAY. The number of stock condemned by the Government officials and slaughtered by their orders last year was 3340 cattle, 7 pigs. The compensation paid on the basis pf half value was £42 10s, and on the basis of full value £6760 4s 3d. Mr J. S. Tosland, a well-known Pihama farmer, to-day announces himself in our columns as a Democratic candidate for the Egmont seat. The Opunake Railway. “It is considered at present unnecessary to investigate tiic matter further.'' The reply was given by the Minister of Puolic Works to Mr Pearce’s question whether he would have an enquiry hold and evidence taken as to the best route for the Opunake branch railway, as follows: (ij Where the railway will accommodate the most settlers; (2) where it will got most traffic; (3; where it will be the cheapest to construct and maintain; and (4) which route will be the best to relieve the roads from excessive traffic. The Minister points oht that two reports have been made recently on' the routes of this railway —one in 1905 and another in 19th, and that there is evidently no change in tho condition since then. Mr Pearce said that the reply was unsatisfactory. He did not advocate the claims of any particular route, but was strongly of opinion that a new enquiry should be held.

THE SALE OF SEEDS

Provisions for Government Control. In accordance with his recent promises the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. T. Mackenzie, has introduced a Bill providing for the control of the sale of seeds for agricultural andjnistbral purposes, says the ‘‘i'.-Z. Times.’' The seeds dealt with are those of any grass, cereal, or fodder or forage plant. It provides that no person shall sell for solving any seed that contains more than 2 per cent, by numbers of gorse or broom seeds, or ’an aggregate of more than 1 per cent, by numbers of Californian thistle, dodder, sweetbriar, blackberry, and Bathurst burr seeds. Every vendor of a lot of seed for sowing exceeding five pounds in weight is to be required to send to the buyer within three days an invoice certificate setting out the following particulars: —The date of tho sale, the seller’s name and address, tho buyer’s name and address, the mark, if any, on the packages; the name of each kind of seed, the locality and country, and the year, in which each kind was harvested, and whether each kind is cleaned or uncleaned. Cleaned seeds are defined as those containing an aggregate of not more than 6 per cent, of weed seeds. Uncloaned seeds are those containing more than this proportion. The right is to be given to buyers, to send samples of to the Government Biologist for testing. Any material difference from the vendor’s description of the parcel will bo taken as constituting an offence on the latter’s part, and render him liable to a penalty of £lO for a first offence and £SO for subsequent offences. It is provided that gorsesoed may bo sold for sowing for fodder or use as hedges if the consent of the Minister is first obtained.